Page:Randolph, Paschal Beverly; Eulis! the history of love.djvu/76

Rh wife, if not as cold as himself, is probably just the opposite, and from the altar to the grave never realizes the least love:—nothing but selfish passion,—is a woman who yearns, and vainly, for what she cannot get,—true love; and the consequence is that her child comes to earth with yearnings never to he gratified: love-hungry from eternity to time, and through time all the way back to eternity again! Now, when he or she thus born, encounters those of opposite gender, who are full of love, they cling to such with the tenacity of death itself, until they sap out the full soul, and fill their empty ones. What care they even though desolation, despair and death follow in their footsteps, and all their tracks are blood spots from hearts that they have broken? For so long as these leeches get their fill, no matter what evil betides those upon whom they feed,—and whom they ruin. These ghouls have no principle, declare love with like fervor to every one they meet; and having ruined them, blasted their happiness, destroyed their peace of mind, shipwrecked families, violated daughters, debauched honest men's wives, they brag of it, and send fiery clouds of remorse and shame, to crown the victims of their rapacity, and coarsely brutal lust. Their crime is fiendish. I conclude this section by briefly recapitulating the res gestæ of it, which may be thus summarized:—

Many people of both sexes often experience a terrible attraction toward another, that resembles, but is not, love. On the contrary, it is a fearful, monstrous passion, and they almost vainly struggle to escape it. Such persons are vampyrized; and a vampyre is a person born love-hungry, who have none themselves, who are empty of it, but who fascinate and literally suck others dry who do have love in their natures. Detect it thus: the vampyre is selfish, is never content but in handling, fondling its object, which process leaves the victim utterly exhausted, and they don't know why. Break off at once. Baffle it by steady refusal; allow not even hands to touch, and remember that the vampyre seeks to prolong his or her own existence, life and pleasure, at the expense of your own. Women when thus assailed should treat the assailant with perfect coldness and horror. Thus they can baffle this pestiferous thing—which is more common than people even suspect; in fact, an